Mileage (mpg) Using Ethanol Seen 20% Higher Than EPA Says - Bloomberg

[Bill USA]

84. I am merely repeating the reports published in Wall Street Journal, and by

the Consumer Federation of American


Big Oil's Big Stall on Ethanol
http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2007-09-30/big-oils-big-stall-on-ethanol

At the same time the industry is collecting a 51 cents-per-gallon federal subsidy for each gallon of ethanol it mixes with gas and sells as E10 (10% ethanol and 90% gas), it's working against the E85 blend with tactics both overt and stealthy. Efforts range from funding studies that bash the spread of ethanol for driving up the price of corn, and therefore some food, to not supporting E85 pumps at gas stations. The tactics infuriate a growing chorus of critics, from the usual suspects—pro-ethanol consumer groups—to the unexpected: the oil industry's oft-time ally, the auto industry.

Those who criticize the industry's stance see it as reminiscent of its attempts to discredit the theory that human use of fossil fuels has caused global warming. Mark N. Cooper, research director at the Consumer Federation of America, authored a recent paper characterizing the situation as "Big Oil's war on ethanol." The industry, he writes, "reacted aggressively against the expansion of ethanol production, suggesting that it perceives the growth of biofuels as an independent, competitive threat to its market power in refining and gasoline marketing."
(more)

Oil vs Ethanol - Consumer Federation of America
http://www.consumerfed.org/elements/www.consumerfed.org/file/Ethanol.pdf
(emphases my own)

Keeping the refining sector tight is not the only way Big Oil battles against ethanol. The oil companies have substantial market power over the distribution of alternative fuels, as a Wall Street Journal headline pointed out: “Fill Up With Ethanol? One Big Obstacle is Big Oil.”

Yet so far, only a tiny fraction of U.S. service stations let a driver fill up with ethanol. There are a number of reasons, but one big one is resistance from oil companies…

Oil companies lose sales every time a driver chooses E85, and they employ a variety of tactics that keep the fuel out of stations that bear the company name. For instance, franchises sometimes are required to purchase all the fuel they sell from the oil company…

Contracts sometimes limit advertising of E85 and restrict the use of credit cards to apply for it. Some require that any E85 pump be on a separate island, no under the main canopy.2

2 Laura Meckler, “Fill Up with Ethanol? One Obstacle is Big Oil: Rules Keep a Key Fuel Out of Some stations; Car Makers Push Back,” Wall Street Journal, April 2, 2007, p. A1.

NOte that the words in the excerpts above are not mine. THey are the words of reporters for the Wall Street Journal and Busineessweek